Author
Topic: 2016 Farmer's Market (Read 9235 times)

I'll bring them to the farmer's market with me starting in May. You can get them sooner than that by visiting me at the greenhouse. They can be planted any time from now till about the first of June. They are my landrace variety, so they have been selected to grow wonderfully in this area. I have spent a lot of effort in selecting for onions that store for a long time on the shelf in a warm/dry room.

Click on the "Notify" icon in this thread if you would like to be notified of new additions to this thread.

Tomatoes that I expect to have ready for opening day of the farmer's market on May 7th...

They consist of 3 sets of plants to be sold as six packs of mixed varieties. There is one duplicate between the sets, so getting all three will give you 17 different varieties of tomatoes! I have trialed hundreds of varieties of tomatoes over the past 7 growing seasons. These represent the best that I have found for growing in my Cache Valley garden without fertilizers, compost, or -cides. They are mostly smallish tomatoes, so that they can actually have a chance to ripen in spite of the cold-climate and short-season. I tasted every fruit before saving seeds from it. No cardboard tomatoes here!

--- Earliest Red Tomatoes ---Fern-leaved: A determinate slicer. My earliest slicer.Brad: A potato leaved indeterminate saladette. Typically my earliest tomato.Jagodka: A very early saladette. My most productive tomato.DXX-M: An early determinate from a cross between Jagodka and DX52-12.Matina: An early determinate saladette. Early Slicers: From my landrace.

You've mentioned the mixed tomato plants are a top seller at your farmers market. Curious to know what other things are highly sought after by the people in your area and what things your hoping to produce if you dont currently do or better if you already do. I guess tomatoes would fall under that category.

A quick google search for top sellers in general seem to be Potted plants, eggs, homemade soap, jams, honey, herbs, etc. Perhaps homemade zucini bread would be a hit for your customers. (and i have a soap recipie from a 1950's banned chemistry book if your interested. Lavender or other herbally soaps would probably go down well).

Berries sell very well at my market. They are fiddly to pick, so it's hard to grow very many of them. I could grow a lot more than I do. Four years ago, after my landlady died, I let the strawberry patch go to weeds. I'm still farming it though. So time to plant another strawberry patch. Berries are highly perishable.

Shelling peas sell very well. Again, fiddly to pick, and the season is very short.

I could sell a lot more cherry tomatoes, if I had the patience to pick them.

There isn't much of a market for medicinal herbs, but I make a point of taking some with me every week.

Potted basil plants sell well. I think that I didn't grow enough this year, but I grew 4 flats of basil, so that's a start.

I can't sell watermelon fruits, cause I don't know how to determine if they are ripe. Muskmelons sell very well. The fragrance practically sells the melons without any help from me.

I don't sell any "added-value" products, because I don't want to deal with the horrendous government bureaucracy surrounding them.

I currently have about 56 flats of vegetable plants growing in the greenhouse. Some for me, most for market.

This week daddy is bringing honey, and garlic. He usually brings a bouquet of flowers as a table decoration. Offer him about $5 for it and he's likely to let you take it home with you.

I'm bringing the first pint basket of tomatoes: almost full...

Bringing lots of fava beans. I really like them sautéed in butter, or added to a stir-fry. The pod is fibrous, so they should be shelled first like shelling peas. Some people like to shell the individual beans, but I like eating the skin. To me, it's part of the charm of fava beans.

Also bringing culinary and medicinal herbs:

YarrowParsleySpearmintOreganoSageThyme

Sorry that I forgot to harvest Mullein. If you are into wild-crafting, you might check to see if it's starting to flower. That's a perfect time to pick it.

I'm bringing a few potted plants: Toothache plant, spearmint, thyme. And the last older potted grape vine. It's Interlaken, a green seedless that does very well here. I'm expecting to bring more varieties of grape vines next week, or the week after, depending on how they grow between now and then. I'll bring Egyptian Onions if I remember to throw them on the truck in the morning.

I thinned the carrots and beets, so I'm bringing a few small ones. The beets are beautiful colors. The greens are very luscious right now.

The truck is loaded and ready to go to market first thing in the morning.

It contains:

Honey,Red Curie winter squash,An orange pumpkin,cucumbers,tomatoes, including some really tasty yellow/red bi-colored ones,the last of the yellow plums. They are very sweet this week. Purple plums will be ready next week,tomatillos, sweet corn, raspberries, And perhaps a few things I forgot to mention.

No tobacco this week. Dry beans may be ready to harvest next week. I just started picking the earliest of the early.

With frost expected any day now, I expect that I'll start bringing winter squash next week.

The truck is filled to capacity with butternut and maxima winter squash. Pricing is $10 per crate for storage squash, or $1 to $4 for smaller squash. Maybe up to $10 for some of the 60 pound maximas. There was a second crop of buttercups. I am thrilled because they are my favorite tasting and best selling squash. There are also a few birdhouse gourds and mixta squash.

We'll bring honey as always. Stock up now to save a trip out to Paradise during the winter.

I've been picking lots and lots of apples, and will make them available by the half-bushel for a great price: $10 per half-bushel.

I've also dug carrots: Huge carrots great for soups and cakes.

There is a little bit of winter squash left, and lots of decorative gourds, and some pumpkins. I'm bringing pumpkins with hull-less seeds. Carve a jack-o-lantern, and save the seeds. There are no annoying shells to remove before eating the seeds. I'm bringing some already dried pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and yellow mustard spice.